The Community Health Network of Western New York (CHN), a health-care coalition that will promote wellness and health education and in which the University at Buffalo Department of Family Medicine is a key player, has received a $125,000 grant from the John R. Oishei Foundation.

Guofang Li, Ph.D., is a Chinese native, academic researcher and assistant professor in the University at Buffalo Graduate School of Education. She seems the very model of the stereotypical Asian immigrant -- whom she describes as "intelligent, industrious, enduring, obedient, highly successful and joyfully initiated into North American life and English literacy." In reality, Li is out to dispel that stereotype and in study after study she has debunked the popular idea that Asian students are, by nature, better equipped to succeed academically than other minority groups.

Being inactive is more life-threatening than being overweight or obese, results of one of the first studies to consider body weight and physical activity simultaneously and assess their independent effects on mortality has found.

A distinguished Dartmouth College scholar and former president of the Law and Society Association has been named director of the UB's Baldy Center, an internationally recognized center for interdisciplinary study of law and legal institutions.

Toxic mold, bioaerosol contaminants from ship ballast, diesel-fuel exhaust and other threats to air quality in Western New York will be on the agenda on Dec. 10 at "Clean Air, Clean Walls, Clean Water," a workshop to be sponsored by the University at Buffalo Industry University Center for Biosurfaces (IUCB).

The winning team from the annual Panasci Entrepreneurial Competition of the University at Buffalo School of Management now will be eligible to advance to other competitions to compete for as much as $100,000 in start-up capital in which to launch its business.

The University at Buffalo undergraduate Student Association (SA) has pledged $25,000 over five years to an endowment fund designed to help undergraduate students who are experiencing financial difficulties stay in school.

The UB Center for the Arts has announced a date revision for a performance by Gregory Hines, whose show now be held at 8 p.m. on March 29 in the Mainstage Theatre in the Center for the Arts on the UB North (Amherst) Campus.

Al Gore's upcoming appearance as host on this week's "Saturday Night Live" and his recent forays into talk-TV land are examples of a political strategy that dates back to the days of Teddy Roosevelt, says a University at Buffalo political science professor who studies presidential campaigns. "Of course," adds James E. Campbell, "over time there's been a big change from Teddy Roosevelt's aggressive, but dignified personal campaigning to Clinton's saxophone solos on Arsenio Hall's show and Gore's and John McCain's appearances in 'Saturday Night Live' comedy skits."

Researchers at the University at Buffalo now are able to "meet" with colleagues across the state or across the globe without ever leaving campus using a new Access Grid node -- the first such facility at an academic institution in New York State -- in UB's Center for Computational Research. The center also is home to a new tiled-display wall, measuring 88 square feet, that displays visual information at 20 times the resolution of conventional large-format display screens and permits scientific visualizations in larger-than-life proportions.

People with only mildly elevated systolic blood pressure have a high risk of stroke similar to those with significantly raised systolic or diastolic blood pressure, long-term follow-up by University at Buffalo researchers of a large national population sample has shown. The study also found that the increase in stroke risk was not confined to those over 65, conventionally considered most stroke-prone: Systolic hypertension increased the risk of all types of strokes in participants as young as 45.

They wouldn't be science librarians if they didn't love science and the sciences team in the University at Buffalo Libraries has some holiday gift suggestions for the science teacher or budding Niels Bohr dear to your heart.

A survey of attitudes toward organ donation among African-American residents of Buffalo has shown that while nearly all respondents were aware of the concept, less than one-third said they would be willing to donate their organs. Survey results reflect a deep distrust of physicians and of the health-care system and reveal differences in attitude toward organ donation based on age and education level.

The U.S. Supreme Court's consideration of two affirmative-action cases involving admissions policies at the University of Michigan will result in a strict scrutiny to identify which university affirmative-action programs actually serve diversity, says Lee A. Albert, University at Buffalo law professor.

It might have killed the cat but a new study by psychologists at the University at Buffalo suggests that curiosity is very good for people. Their study concludes that the degree to which people are curious actively influences their personal growth opportunities and the level of intimacy that develops when they meet someone new.

The Margaret L. Wendt Foundation today announced grants totaling $4.5 million to the University at Buffalo, Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute (HWI) and Roswell Park Cancer Institute -- the three partners in the Buffalo Life Sciences Complex.

Carl Dennis, David C. Felder and Barbara H. Tedlock of the University at Buffalo have been recognized by State University of New York Chancellor Robert L. King for significant contributions in the humanities, arts and social sciences.

The College of Arts and Sciences at the University at Buffalo is reaching out to local high school students next semester by offering two educational programs designed to introduce prospective students to the college and the university, as well as help them explore new areas of knowledge.

The 203rd anniversary of the birth of Millard Fillmore, the University at Buffalo's first chancellor and 13th president of the United States, will be observed in ceremonies to be held at 10 a.m. on Jan. 7 in Forest Lawn Cemetery.

Merril T. Dayton, M.D., chief of gastrointestinal surgery at the University of Utah College of Medicine, has been named chair of the Department of Surgery in the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, effective July 1.

A new method with the potential to quickly detect suspicious patterns in reported illnesses in specific geographic regions is being developed by a geographer at the University at Buffalo. Combining cluster analysis with quality-control techniques traditionally used on assembly lines in factories, the method takes a novel approach to the problem of detecting potentially significant increases in the incidence of disease within specific geographic areas.

Ashley Kahn, author of "A Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane's Signature Album," will give a reading at 7 p.m. on Jan. 13 in the auditorium of Allen Hall on the University at Buffalo South (Main Street) Campus.